NB8B Pre-purchase test experience

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 8:37 pm

Where are you located Clan. Most states have get togethers where you can see some well sorted examples and if you ask nicely, then possibly a drive. Here in Vic we have a Thursday night meet where we have some nice cars turn up from stock to not. It will give you a good baseline to work from as to how they should feel.

Postby **Okibi** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 1:31 am

Not unusual to find a used car with those sort of issues.

One car I test drove almost didn't make it back to the dealer, when it did there was a thick cloud of oil smoke coming from the exhaust.

If you're not confident in inspecting a used car then there are plenty of experts you can pay to inspect the car, I suggest you choose one that will do a compression check.

Never use an inspector recommended buy the person selling the car

Make sure you have the seller agree that the inspection report is something you've paid for and is for your eyes only.

Clan · Postby **Clan** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 5:34 pm

22Silver wrote:Dealers are tricky, because they fill the oil and radiator and change the air filter, even if it has never been done before, so the car appears to be well maintained.

Buy private, and check those 3 things. If 1 or more is seriously neglected, it is a bad sign.
Also if it has really, really crappy tires on it, there's a good chance the owner is a bit of a cheapskate and may or may not have cut a few other corners...

Well, the seller emailed me the Mazda dealer service records since the car was new (serviced at the same place). However, they only state, say "180,000 km service" + whatever else was done extra (such as machined disc brakes), but I have no idea what was actually included in that...

During the last three years, the car has done maybe 15,000 km and was serviced annually. And the tyres are from a good brand.

Clan · Postby **Clan** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 5:37 pm

meanmx wrote:Where are you located Clan. Most states have get togethers where you can see some well sorted examples and if you ask nicely, then possibly a drive. Here in Vic we have a Thursday night meet where we have some nice cars turn up from stock to not. It will give you a good baseline to work from as to how they should feel.

I'm in SE Melbourne so, yeah, I could come along to one of these meetings. I'm quite tight with my schedule during the week, but I'll try to come to the next one(s).

shuey · Postby **shuey** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 5:46 pm

Clan wrote:I'm in SE Melbourne so, yeah, I could come along to one of these meetings. I'm quite tight with my schedule during the week, but I'll try to come to the next one(s).

Or you can just hang out with me, I'm in SE Melbourne too..haha!

Clan · Postby **Clan** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 5:53 pm

shuey wrote:Or you can just hang out with me, I'm in SE Melbourne too..haha!

Deal!

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 6:09 pm

shuey wrote:Or you can just hang out with me, I'm in SE Melbourne too..haha!

Don't do that, you'll just end up buying an 8B and then try and turn it into an SE without the power

radar · Postby **radar** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 11:14 am

Sometimes an idea to check out a top notch model at top dollar to see what your money can buy.
Looking for my car I was amazed at the number of people who thought their 160 000 km car was worth $12500.

$1500 more bought mint - service history with one third the kms.

22Silver · Postby **22Silver** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 12:41 pm

Find out a little about the owner.

I test drove an 86,000km NB8B and it felt very 'meh'. The guy who owned it didn't really care much about cars, just liked the styling on the mx5, and was selling so he could 'upgrade' to a kia something something. The tires were like $45 economy tires, and there were 3 different brands on the car (at least the front 2 matched...)

I then went to test drive a 110,000km NB8A and it felt awesome, like a sports car should. The guy who owned it was an ex-aviation engineer turned network engineer after ANSET kicked the bucket, who bought the car because his shoulder was too damaged to ride his duccatti, but was selling to upgrade to an SP.

All tires were fresh sticky yoko's and it was clearly well serviced. You can often tell a fair bit about the car just by knowing why they're selling, and checking the tires (a motor enthusiast will use good tires most likely) and if they've used kmart tire specials and have no idea what oil is in the engine and can't remember if the clutch has ever been replaced, there's a good chance they don't really care about the car and may have neglected other things)

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:26 pm

It was said "Dealers are tricky,"

Well so are a lot of private sellers. More and more people are heading for reputable dealers rather than deal with amateurs who often have little idea of service or processes and who often want the same $ as dealers.

I only recently discovered that RACV do on site inspections of vehicles with a report on condition- but not cheap- starts around $200. I don't particularly buy the enthusiast thing as a great criteria either. Many people maintain their cars carefully and in line with service requirement. In fact the cars that betray a certain type of enthusiast is not always a great selling feature.